Over The Cannes Transom: 13 Films Takes Int’l On ‘Very Good Girls’; ‘Belle And Sebastian’ Acquired By Film Movement; Spotlight Falls On Checkov-Inspired ‘Days And Nights’; Stellan Skarsgård Boards ‘Long Ships’; More

13 Films will be repping international sales on Naomi Foner’s Very Good Girls for Herrick Entertainment, the film and stage financing division of investment firm The Herrick Company, Inc. Pic stars Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen as two girls determined to lose their virginity before college who fall for the same guy. Boyd Holbrook, Demi Moore, Kiernan Shipka, Clark Gregg, Peter Skaarsgard, and Ellen Barkin also star in Foner’s directorial debut which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Tribeca Film has domestic rights and is releasing the film stateside in June on VOD and in theaters July 25. Norton Herrick, Michael London, Janice Williams and Mary Jane Skalski are producers and Hawk Koch, Gale Anne Hurd, Peter D. Graves and Lee Clay exec produced the pic.

NY-based Film Movement has acquired Belle and Sebastian(Belle et Sébastien), director Nicolas Vanier’s adaptation of the classic French tale about a young boy, his sheepdog, and their friendship in the chaos of WWII. Pic has already scored almost $23M at the French box office, thanks in part to the region’s familiarity with the property which was first created as a 1960s television series. Film Movement snapped up U.S. rights to the PG family pic as part of its strategy to broaden distribution offerings. Film Movement’s Adley Garterstein negotiated the deal with Gaumont’s Yohann Comte. The company recently picked up Berlin Silver Bear-winner Stations of the Cross.

Spotlight Pictures has acquired international rights to Christian Camargo’s Days And Nights, which stars Jean Reno, Katie Holmes and William Hurt and is loosely based on the Chekhov play The Seagull. The pic will follow a family of eccentrics, each in love with an unrequited “other,” who strive to make sense of their own desires. Juliet Rylance co-stars and is producing with Barbara Romer, and Spotlight is screening the pic at the Cannes market. The deal was brokered by Carlos Rincon for Spotlight and ICM Partners’ Peter Trinh.

Stellan Skarsgård will star in the The Long Ships, the adaptation of the Swedish novel about famed 10th century Viking Red Worm. Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland will direct and the screenplay will be written by Danish scribe Tobias Lindholm. Shooting is set to begin in 2016 with a 2017 release being eyed. Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Marie Gade will produce for Zentropa, with executive producers Lone Korslund from Nordisk Film and support from TV2 Denmark, Film I Väst and Copenhagen Film Fund.

Martin Freeman and Brian Cox have been set to star in American Hangman, a U.S.-based thriller about a kidnap plot that exploits the terrifying side of social media. Playwright and documentary filmmaker Wilson Coneybeare is producing the Canada-Ireland co-production, which Metro International is selling at the Cannes market. Production is slated to start in September for a 2015 release. Meredith Fowler, Jeremy Tebbett, Colin Tebbett, and Coneybeare are producing.

MACCS International has opened an LA outpost, tapping former Cinedigm and Warner Bros exec Jesse Chow as SVP and GM, North America. He will be tasked with growing the distribution software company’s business in the U.S. Among MACCS’ products, which serve more than 100 studio and indie distributors in 36 territories outside the U.S., are Maccs Box, a data exchange that automates box office reporting and invoicing; DCinemaHub, a platform that automates digital content ordering and delivery; and VPF Hub, a clearing system for virtual print fee settlements. The company already has offices in The Netherlands, Germany, and Australia and recently unveiled a partnership with Vista Entertainment Solutions which acquired a 25% stake and is fueling MACCS’ push into the U.S.